kipwinger

Don't anybody blame the fourth line. Smith turned the puck over in the D-zone. He's been good tonight but that was on him.

Goddamn Kindl and Lashoff. They're horrible. Turn the puck over for goals constantly. They need to be more like Brendan Smith. Oh wait.

For 5 million a year he better be top two on whatever team he's on...and he better produce like it. He doesn't. So no thanks on Tyler "Big for Nothing" Myers.

I think they should try (just for a few shifts) to switch Helm and Sheahan. Have Sheahan with Franzen and Jurco and Helm with Tatar and Nyquist. That second line seems like they'd be hard to get the puck from, and the third line would fly.

He's holding his own this year. I think in the past he's been the recipient of their good play, but this year he's really contributing to that line...not just riding their coattails. I never saw it coming and bitched quite a bit about Abby being on the top line. I was clearly wrong about that. This is me officially eating crow.

Yeah, he's sorta good I guess.

I disagree on that one. He is big, no doubt. But with defensemen, 50 pts. seems to be the magic number and Byfuglien's done it three times as a d-man. I don't love the guy or anything, but that's a lot of points from the back end (like, Keith Yandle type points from the blueline). If Myers was anywhere close to that I might understand the hype. But he's long way off.

I've been saying that about Myers since the rumors started. He's not that good. He's only an average defenseman. If he was 6'1 and 205 lbs. but did everything else exactly the same nobody would be impressed by him at all. For whatever reason hockey fans are mesmerized by "bigness" regardless of whether or not the biggie has much talent.

From Avery to Emmerton

Anybody else think that the "euro twins" should really be the "euro triplets"? Kronwall plays so well with D and Z. He reads them just as well as they read each other.

The Mickey Redmond Experience

OctoBlog

ZetterBlog

You and I are talking about two different things. Go back to Harold's original post and my response and watch how the coversation developed. Originally it had everything to do with Kindl and Lashoff. You just happened to come in during the middle of it, and perhaps the full context of what was being discussed was a bit lost in the fray.

Neither should Kindl and Lashoff. Especially before they've played a single shift together. Which was my point. Downplay the lack of depth scoring all you like, it's still a bigger concern that the Kindl Lashoff pairing is. Which is to say, as long as we're winning games why complain about either right?

Also, fun fact. Kindl actually plays one second more 5 on 5 per game than Quincey has. So he's no more "sheltered". Where he loses ground in the TOI per game department is on the special teams where he's averaging 21 seconds a game, compared to Quincey's 2 minutes of special teams TOI per game. So this "Kindl was sheltered when playing with Quincey" argument doesn't hold water.

I sure hope we're expecting them to play big roles. We've seen over the last five years what happens when we've only got Dats, Z, Franzen, Kronwall, and Ericsson playing hockey. *SPOILER ALERT* We get manhandled in the playoffs by teams with more depth lol.

Ok, my fault. In the future I'll "spend more time refuting" your "ugh" statement instead of assuming that you were taking the easy way out and bitching about a pairing that hasn't played one single second together so far this season. From now on I'll give your three letter posts the diligent reading and thought that they deserve. Or maybe, just maybe, you wait and see if they improve from last year (like Howard has done) before posting your obviously well intentioned and insightful "ugh" remark.

It was an example, I only bring it up to make that point that this team will deal with far bigger problems than the temporary Lashoff-Kindl pairing. And anybody making a big deal out of said pairing is blowing things out of proportion. Also, those guys have combined for 16 points. When a couple of guys have slow starts its just being snake bit. When six guys you rely on to play big roles on your team cannot put up points, there's something going on. I don't know what. But it's not just bad luck.

It's low hanging fruit in the same way that "ugh Cleary" is low hanging fruit based on his play last year. Or like Quincey was. Or Sammy before them. I don't think you're making anything up. But I do think it's too easy to complain about third pairing defensemen when they have very little effect on the game relative to the rest of the team. Also, I'm not really sure why you think that pair will now be sheltered less than before. If anything the other four will play even more now. Why not say "ugh" about that fact that none of Tatar, Sheahan, Jurco, Helm, Smith, or Dekeyser have produced up to expectations this year? That's a legit concern and has a huge effect on the team. The third pair's future mishaps affect the team far less. I just think it's too easy to ***** about third pairing d-men...regardless of how bad they obviously are. This team's future does not fall on the shoulders of Kindl and Lashoff, and if it does, someone screwed up worse than they likely will.

Too easy. Kindl's looked fine this year and Lashoff is steady (even if he hasn't improved, which hopefully he has a little). No reason to lament this, aside from the obvious "low hanging fruit" aspect.

Well that got out of hand quickly. I liked the Dats line and the Sheahan line. Glad to see Tatar get one. Looking forward to Franzen getting back so everyone can get slotted where they should and the offense will hopefully roll ing. p.s. Glendening was real good too. p.p.s. The defense is still woefully bad at advancing the puck.

The best tactic against the Kings seems to be to hope that Kopitar and Gaborik are injuried, in which case they'll have trouble scoring lol.

Are you implying that you'd be ok with Bob Hartley as the coach of the Detroit Red Wings? Bob Hartley?

Once everyone is healthy I'd try something like... Sheahan (Net Front) Datsyuk, Nyquist, Franzen Kronwall Abby Zetterberg, Tatar, Jurco Smith That's about as good as I can figure a couple of powerplay units based on the current roster.